Survey reporting threshold checker: which breakdowns can you show?
A minimum group size protects people only if nobody can get round it, and subtraction is the usual way round.
On this page
Enter the responses in each group of one breakdown and your minimum; see which groups to report, which to merge, and where subtraction would expose one. Nothing is stored.
The rule this tool applies
Report a group only if it has at least the minimum number of responses
Below that, show nothing for it: no score, no percentage, no comments.
Merge the groups that fall short
Combine every group below the minimum into one combined group, and report that instead.
Close the subtraction gap
If only one group is below the minimum, its results can be worked out by taking the reported groups away from the overall result. The same is true if the small groups together are still below the minimum. So merge in the smallest reportable group as well (the first listed, if two are the same size), and repeat until the combined group clears the minimum.
If the total is below the minimum, report nothing
Show nothing for this breakdown, not even the overall figure.
| Group | Responses | What to do (minimum 5) |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | 12 | Report |
| Sales | 23 | Report |
| Operations | 31 | Report |
| Legal | 3 | Below the minimum: merge |
| IT | 7 | Merge too: Legal on its own could be found by subtraction |
Illustrative. Report Finance, Sales and Operations, and a combined “Legal and IT” group of 10 responses. Press “Fill with the example” in the tool above to load it.
Three things the rule does not cover
Crossed breakdowns
Gender within a team or age band within a site creates small cells quickly; apply the minimum to every cell.
Overlapping reports
Two breakdowns published side by side (by department, and by department excluding one site) can isolate a group the minimum protected; the same is true of this quarter against last quarter when only a few people have joined or left.
Comments
A comment can identify its writer in a group of any size; read and anonymise free text before release.
More on all of this in Anonymity and confidentiality in employee surveys.
Built from the reporting rules in great{with}talent’s anonymity and confidentiality statement (no reporting on small groups, typically fewer than five). The merging rule is a standard approach to protecting small groups in published tables. Our surveys, including WinningFormula, normally set the minimum at five.
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